One of xAI's pioneer engineers, who played a crucial role in its early days, decided to leave and rejoin his former employer, OpenAI, a rival of xAI.

Kyle Kosic's departure from xAI in April, as indicated on his LinkedIn profile, had not been previously disclosed.   

xAI Pioneer Engineer Leaves, Rejoins OpenAI

Elon Musk enthusiastically joined the AI race last summer by launching the startup xAI and recruiting a team of talented individuals from leading tech companies such as OpenAI, Google, DeepMind, and Microsoft.

According to Fortune, an employee from xAI has recently rejoined OpenAI, a rival company, after just 11 months of working with Musk's company.

Kosic, who previously worked at OpenAI for two years, recently made a transition to xAI in May 2023. Based on the other xAI's engineers' LinkedIn profiles, it seems that the rest of the original team members have chosen to stay with the company.

Musk has emphasized that xAI is an AI company that places a strong emphasis on safety rather than profit.

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Elon Musk vs. OpenAI

Elon Musk, one of the co-founders of OpenAI and a former member of its board of directors, has publicly distanced himself from the company in recent years due to disagreements about its mission. In March, he even filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, although he later withdrew it.

According to estimates from PitchBook, xAI currently has approximately 100 employees. The company is currently hiring for an array of positions, including engineer and AI tutor roles, which can be found on its website. All of xAI's original employees, except for Kosic, are still with the company.

In his efforts, Musk aims to use exclusive data from his network of companies, which include X, SpaceX, Tesla, and Neuralink, to distinguish xAI from other similar technologies.

The presentation that was shared with investors emphasized the significance of xAI's connections to the "Muskonomy," illustrating how xAI can leverage data from a range of sources including visual, sensory, navigation, and other data from Elon Musk's diverse portfolio of companies.

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